A: The following drive caddy's will handle both the
9.5mm and 12.5 mm disk drives. The Hard Drive Pin Adapter's part number
is 8267R (Dell description: Connector,Header,2X22,Female,2,S,Gold,35K,Third
Height,Chip Set). To see how to remove a hard drive from the 48CVX caddy,
visit here.

2 Q: What is the part number
of the media Hard Disk Drive Media Bay carrier? I want to be able to use
two hard drives at the same time.

A:Media Bay carrier for the I8x00, I4x00 and the I3800
series is 4169D for the 12.5mm drives and 29MFN for the 9.5mm drives. NOTE:This is no longer available on Dell's web site. You must order
the 4 screws that hold the media bay carrier together. For some reason,
Dell does not include these when the media bay is ordered. The part
number for the screws is 53965. NOTE:
Some people are having problems getting these screws. Here is Dell's
description for the screws: SCR,M2.6X5PHH,LP,BC5. These screws are 2.6mm
x 5mm phillips head screws. You could try a hobby shop or your local
hardware store to see if they have them.

The Media Bay carrier for the I7500 series is 4124T. You must also order
the 11 screws, part number 3771U.

The Media Bay carrier for the I600m, I8500 and the Latitude "D"
series notebooks is 4P124. This part number does not include the screws
and it appears that Dell is not going to sell the screws for this module.
The required screws are 2.5mm.

To order these parts, you must call Dell Spare Parts USA at 1-800-357-3355
ext. 69937 or 1-800-449-3355 ext. 69937 or 1-800-624-9896, select option
2, then 2, then 4. One of these numbers should work for you. Typically,
you can not order these parts on the Internet. For Dell Spare Parts
Canada, call 1-866-440-3355.

3 Q: I ordered a 40 GB hard
drive and Windows is telling me that it is only 37.3 GB. Did Dell rip me
off?

A: What you are seeing is not really a problem
at all, but actually a discrepancy in the way drive sizes are reported.
Hard disk manufacturers use decimal megabytes (1,000,000 bytes) in their
advertising, and BIOS auto-detect routines use the same measure. Other
software, especially most disk setup and partitioning utilities like FDISK,
use binary megabytes (1,048,576) in their reporting. A Decimal GB is reported
as 1,000,000,000 bytes and a binary GB is reported as 1,073,741,824 bytes.
The difference of about 7% is what you are seeing.

According to the disk manufacturer, your 40 decimal GB hard drive has
40,000,000,000 bytes. Your software uses the binary system to measure
with so 1 GB in the binary system is 2^30 bytes or 1,073,741,824 bytes.
If you take the 40,000,000,000 that the manufacturer says the drive
has and divide it by how your software measures GB (1,073,741,824 bytes),
you end up with 37.2529 GB using the binary system.

4 Q: There is a 32 MB FAT partition
on my hard drive. What is this for? Can I recover it?

A: Yes the partition is suppose to be there.
The FAT partition that exist on the drive contains diagnostic software
that is installed at the factory when the system is built. The reason
for this being setup on a FAT partition is so that it can be accessed
through a boot disk in case the NTFS partition is not bootable.

You do not have to have this diagnostic partition on a system for normal
operation, but I would not advise that anyone but more advance users remove
this as it may be helpful for some types of technical problems if you
have to call into Dell Technical Support.

5 Q: I have a 32 GB hard drive
and it only has one partition. How can I create a second partition to save
my files to?

A: You basically have two choices. The first
is to wipe out your hard drive, delete the C:\ partition., repartition
the hard drive and then format the drives. Then reinstall your operating
system and programs.

The second option is to use a program such as Partition
Magic to create the second partition. This would allow you to create
the partition on the fly without destroying your data and OS setup. I
strongly suggest that if you use this method, back up your data files
first.

A: The configuration is the internal HDD is
the Master on the Primary IDE bus, the fixed optical drive is the Slave
on the Primary IDE bus, the Media Bay device is the Master on the Secondary
IDE Bus. Pull the HDD and nothing will work.

The error occurs when either the HDD or optical drive becomes half connected
to its connector. That locks up the bus and the BIOS reports both failed.
Reseat one or both of the drives. The Inspiron cases flex too much because
of the loose palm rest "feature".

8 Q: What is the part number
for the plastic filler for an empty media bay?

A: Part Number: 0849D
Description: FILLER,PLSTC,AIRBAY or 53950
Dell Latitude CP Travel Module (an empty module; not a battery). These
modules will fit the following systems. Click on the part number to view
the parts.

A: This number basically refers to the time
it takes from the time the drive is asked for data until it can retrieve
it. Since a hard disk recorder doesn't write in linear tracks, this specification
is fairly significant. The lower the number, the faster the hard drive
is.

A: Hard drives will typically last anywhere
from 3 to 5 years. The latest hard drives are more reliable and last longer.
Hard drives will and do fail. Some hard drives might fail in a day, a
month or a year, this is why having an up to date hard drive backup is
so crucial!

A: One easy way to extend the life of any
hard drive, especially a notebook hard drive, is to not bounce it. The
head floats on a minute cushion of air over the magnetic coating on the
platter. When you bounce the notebook onto a hard surface, or jostle it
as you carry it, the head hits the platter and scrapes it. Too many bounces
and you will loose data. Head damage can also result. So always be gentle
in moving a notebook.

14 Q: I recently fdisk and
reformatted the hard drive on an older Latitude CP. The drive was a 4.3
GB and now it is only 2.0 GB. What happened?

A: When using FDISK, you probably answered
the question about large disk support and FAT32 with N, and if you did
that, DOS will make a partition at 2GB and format it FAT16. If you had
put in the partitions and logical drives yourself beforehand at 2gb and
the rest of the drive, you would have had 2 drives of approximately 2GB
each to be formatted FAT16. 2GB is the biggest drive/partition possible
with FAT16. If you look at the drive in FDISK OPTIONS, select #4 and see
if it shows FAT16 on the line for the drive. If it does, that's what you
did. If it shows FAT32, then you have a "hangover" from a previous
installation but you will need to wipe the drive back to a bare state
and start over in either case.

15 Q: My hard drive switched
from UDMA 5 to PIO and is stuck in PIO Mode. How do I switch it back to
UDMA 5? I'm using Win XP.

A: Windows XP will turn off DMA mode for a
device after encountering certain errors during data transfer operations.
If more than six DMA transfer timeouts occur, Windows will turn off DMA
and use only PIO mode on that device.

In this case, the user cannot turn on DMA for this device. The only
option for the user who wants to enable DMA mode is to uninstall and
reinstall the device.

Windows XP downgrades the Ultra DMA transfer mode after receiving more
than six CRC errors. Whenever possible, the operating system will step
down one UDMA mode at a time (from UDMA mode 4 to UDMA mode 3, and so
on).

To correct the problem, you have to uninstall the Primary IDE channel
and reboot. Windows XP will reinstall the IDE drivers and redetected
the hard drive. To uninstall the Primary IDE channel, go to Control
Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI
controllers and select "Primary IDE Channel". Right click
on it and select uninstall. Reboot one more time with 'Use DMA if Available'.
The hard drive access will once again use the correct DMA mode.

16 Q: In my IBM Travelstar
40GNX, I noticed that there is a "loose part noise/rattle" noise
when I move the hard drive around in my hand. Is this normal?

A: Yes, it is normal.

The IBM Hitachi tech support's response is "It is normal for all
drives that incorporate load/unload technology to make a rattling sound.
There is no need to be concerned. The drive will function as designed."

Tohisba's response to this question is to put "Rattle is Normal"
on the label.

A: When converting FAT32 to NTFS, the Win XP conversion
sets up the 512 byte clusters, not the more desirable 4K clusters. These
systems have shown a massive slow down in disk I/O performance. These
systems need to have the cluster size increased to 4K. Unfortunately,
to do this you need a third party software application since there is
no conversion available from Microsoft. One application that has been
recommended, but that I haven't tested, is Paragon
Partition Manager. It is available at a cost of $39.95.

Or you can reformat your hard drive and set the cluster size correctly
resulting in a faster computer.

Stop: 0xc0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SYSTEM or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.
The parameters in parentheses are specific to the system configuration
and may vary.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur if a necessary registry hive file cannot be
loaded because the file is corrupted or missing. Registry files can
be damaged because of hard disk corruption or some other hardware problem.

This behavior can also occur if the driver has damaged the registry
data while loading into memory, or if the memory where the registry
is loading has a parity error. In the latter case, turn off the external
cache and check the memory chips.

To help troubleshoot this problem, read Microsoft's Knowledge Base
Article - 314874.
If it is a corrupt registry, Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 307545
describes how to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows
XP from starting.

A: PIO and DMA refer to the method used to transfer
data between the hard drive and RAM.

PIO (Programmable Input/Output) data transfers use the CPU to control
data transfers between the hard drive and RAM. DMA (Direct Memory Access)
transfers do not involve the CPU, transferring data directly between
the hard drive and RAM. DMA modes are thus better for use with preemptive
multitasking operating systems such as Windows NT, 2000, XP and Windows
95, 98, 98SE and ME.

Transfer
Mode

Max
Transfer Rate

Standard

PIO Mode 0

3.33 MB/s

ATA

PIO Mode 1

5.22 MB/s

ATA

PIO Mode 2

8.33 MB/s

ATA

PIO Mode 3

11.1 MB/s

ATA-2

PIO Mode 4

16.7 MB/s

ATA-3

DMA Single Word Mode

2.11 MB/s

ATA

DMA Single Word Mode 1

4.22 MB/s

ATA

DMA Single Word Mode 2

8.33 MB/s

ATA

DMA Multiple Word Mode 0

4.17 MB/s

ATA

DMA Multiple Word Mode 1

13.3 MB/s

ATA-2

DMA Multiple Word Mode 2

16.7 MB/s

ATA-3

Ultra DMA Mode 0

16.7 MB/s

ATA-4

Ultra DMA Mode 1

25 MB/s

ATA-4

Ultra DMA Mode 2

33.3 MB/s

ATA-4, Ultra AT

Ultra DMA Mode 3

44.4 MB/s

ATA-5

Ultra DMA Mode 4

66.6 MB/s

ATA-5, Ultra ATA/66

Ultra DMA Mode 5

100 MB/s

ATA-6, Ultra ATA/100

Ultra DMA Mode 6*

133 MB/s

ATA-7, Ultra ATA/133*

* This standard may never be officially
adopted since the Serial ATA specification is almost ready.

20 Q: Will erasing my hard drive good enough to get rid
of the data? I want to sell my hard drive and I do not want anyone to access
my files.

A: Erasing the hard drive does not get rid
of the files forever. As a matter of fact, with the proper software it
is relatively easy to recover the files. To make sure that the drive is
actually wiped out, you will have to get some software that will over
write the data that is on your hard drive.

The FORMAT utility actually creates new FAT and ROOT tables, leaving
all previous data on the disk untouched. Moreover, an image of the replaced
FAT and ROOT tables are stored, so that the UNFORMAT command can be
used to restore them. FDISK merely cleans the Partition Table (located
in the drive's first sector) and does not touch anything else.

I would suggest Active@ KILLDISK
for DOS. The pro version of Active@ KILLDISK has several methods for
data destruction that conform to US Department of Defense clearing and
sanitizing standard DoD 5220.22-M, German VSITR, Russian GOST p50739-95.
More sophisticated methods like Gutmann's or User Defined methods are
available as well. There is a free version available also.

21 Q: I've an ATA66 Hard Drive in my Inspiron 8000 and
would like to know if I can install an ATA100 hard drive.

A: The simple answer is YES. The HDD connector in
Dell Notebooks is the same for ATA33, ATA66 & ATA100 HDD and the Inspiron
8000 supports ATA100. If you were using a desktop then you'd need a 80
strand IDE cable for ATA66 and ATA100 HDD to get the full drive potential.

22 Q: When I purchased my notebook, I ordered a 7200 RPM drive from Dell. How can I check to make sure that is what I got?

A: There are a few ways that you can make this determination:

You can physically remove the hard drive from the computer and look at the label. If you do this, follow the instructions in your User's Guide.

You can go to Dell's Premier Site and set up an account. It's free. Once you have your account set up, you can use Dell's System Profiler to scan your notebook to see what is installed. This will give you the part number of the hard drive. Then use Google to search out the hard drive specifications.

Use Windows built in System Information Utility. The System Information Utility is provided in all versions of Windows and is located at START - PROGRAMS - ACCESSORIES - SYSTEM TOOLS. This will give you the model number of the hard drive and you can now use Google to search out the hard drive specifications.

Look in Windows Device Manager and get the model number of the hard drive and use Google to search out the hard drive specifications.

Download AIDA32 and run it. This program will give you the details of your hard drive.

23 Q: I just purchase a new notebook computer from Dell and I noticed that there are extra partitions on the hard drive. One is 3GB FAT32 "Unknown Partition", a 47MB FAT "EISA Configuration" and an NTFS partion. What are these?
The partitions look THIS.

A: Dell began shipping systems in mid-July 2004 with a PC Restore Image by Symantec on the hard drive, which takes 3 to 6 GB of space. Dell PC Restore is a compressed copy of all the software on your computer when it is first sent to you. The copy is placed on a hidden partition on your hard drive. That's your "Unknown Partition".

To access it: Boot your computer. When the Dell BIOS splash screen appears press and hold the <Ctrl> key on the keyboard, press the <F11> key, then release them both at the same time. The Dell PC Restore by Symantec window appears. Go HERE for full details on it and how to use it.

The ESIA Configuration partition is the Dell Diagnostic programs. You access them by booting to them. When you see the Dell BIOS splash screen, hit <F2> multiple times and then choose to boot to the Diagnostics.

The NTFS partition is where your programs and operating system are installed.